In addition to various safety regulations and government standards, general concern for quality and reliability requires the stretcher to be firmly restrained in the event that the vehicle undergoes sudden driving manoeuvres, or crashes. The stretcher must be able to meet a forward pull of 6,000 lbs., a vertical pull of 3,000 lbs., a lateral pull of 3,000 lbs. and a rearward pull of 3,900 lbs., to meet the standard.
There are a number of types of stretcher fastening systems currently available. These are basically either floor mounting systems or a combination of floor and wall mounting systems. The floor mounting systems generally consist of a permanent floor mount fixed to the forward end of the vehicle but in place of the movable fastening hook on the rear of the vehicle, there is a rail mounted on the interior sidewall at the rear end of the vehicle, which includes a sliding rotatable fastener which looks onto a side member of the stretcher.
Both these systems suffer from a number of disadvantages, prime among which are their inability to meet the aforementioned new DRAFT SPECIFICATION.